I bought my SPV E200 at the start of February 2004 from the Orange Website for £50 (My contract is a basic £25 a month) but is now free with the same contract just over a month later.
LOOKS
The phone itself is qwuite large and bulky but the way I see it, is that it is packed with features. It weighs in at 120g but to its credit has a fantastic 16-bit TFT showing 65,536 colours. This is by far the best screen that I have seen on a phone (better than the Nokia 6600 - which I also have)
Operating System
The phone runs on the Windows Smartphone 2003 operating System, which boasts some fantastic features. Being used to the simplicity of the Nokia 6610 and 6600, this was much more complicated to use. However, being able to run Internet Explorer and MSN Messenger is a fantastic bonus. Also among its array of stunts is playing MP3s and, my favorite, watching videos. With a big enough SD card (a costly extra) you are able to put whole movies on it and watch it on the move. (Or even on the plane as you can switch the radio signal off and just use the SPV as a PDA)
Camera
The camera can be set to different resolutions - 160x120, 320x240 and 640x480. The camera takes good pictures but you need to find the right ambience setting for it - as using "dim" or "daylight" when not needed will make the phone have a green or orange tint to it. The video capture is a great bonus but is not of very good quality. (However, the camera on the Nokia 6600 is MUCH better and even the video capture is quite good.)
Programs
There are many programs that you are able to download to your phone - whether by GPRS or to your PC. This allows you to choose for a huge variety of games and accesories. I currently have a SNES emulator on mine allowing me to play the tomeless classic Mega Bomberman (even if a bit slow) Other accesories include Voice activation software and others for viewing/editing word documents. I must mention that these are not all free, so some websites will charge for these.
Battery Life
The battery life is the one big let down of the SPV E200. I am lucky to get through a whole day with it switched on. When bluetooth is on it is more likely that this life will be reduced to under 5 hours. In saying that though, with the phone you get a mains charger and USB cradle to link it to your computer - So one for work and one for home.
Other
One of the best things about the SPV is having any MP3/WMA file as your ringtone - beats any polyphonic ringtone hands down. This also means being able to play music out loud with the speakerphone. The only downside is that the sound quality whilst on the phone is not the best but still good. The price of the phone can be a touch misleading as although you can get it for free (with a contract) there are some "hidden" costs. This includes buying memory cards and software. But also, if you are going to use the internet you must bare in mind that full HTML internet will be larger in size than WAP pages (Around 20 to 25 pages of normal internet compared to 1000 of WAP) so your MB bundle will get used up quicker.
The SPV E200 is a great phone that has become my traveling companion. It is an MP3 player, video player, internet browser and (oh yeah!!) phone all in a small(ish) stylish looking package.
Oh, the headphones/hands free supplied are very uncomfortable, Looking into whether they can be replaced at the minute.
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Especially liked the Nokia comparisons - trying to choose between the two
LeChuck 09.05.2004 18:08
P.S. the comment below was actually written on my E200! Yes...you can even use it to access Ciao!!
LeChuck 09.05.2004 18:06
If you leave it in the cradle when you're at home it is absolutely no problem whatsoever - and with the new update on the Orange site it eradicates the battery problem completely.
I've had both SPV's and believe me, this is THE 'killer app'! it blows everything else on the market out of the water, Nokia, Sony, Motorolla? they don't come close. The only phone that can beat the E200 is the next one...which comes out around November!
3 brings together video calling, video clips, location based services and amazing content to browse and download. 3 has great offers and a huge range of the 3G handsets. Visit the 3 Shop to find more info. on offers
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Mar 3rd, 2004
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